Manchester United are gunning for the Champions League under Michael Carrick in 2025-26 but had to settle for its significantly less lucrative sibling, the Europa League, in 2024-25.
Last week, UEFA released their annual breakdown of the money they distributed to clubs over the course of the season. For reaching the Europa League final – where they were beaten 1-0 by Tottenham – European football’s governing body have confirmed that Man United earned £31m.
That figure, however, does not tell the full story. There are umpteen factors which affected how much the Red Devils ultimately made from the competition – and indeed what they might potentially earn in Europe next season.
Here, United in Focus takes a look at the reality of:
- Matchday income (and costs) at Old Trafford
- Player bonuses
- Surprising cost of travel and other expenses
- Glazers’ influence on new European format
Man United generate huge matchday revenue in Europe, but significant costs eat into the profits
First, the good news. United retained their crown as English football’s biggest matchday income generators in 2024-25.
But the gap between themselves and the rest of the so-called Big Six is narrowing.
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This season, with no European football at Old Trafford and early exits in both cup competitions, both Arsenal and Tottenham will overtake the Red Devils. Liverpool too, potentially.
In 2024-25, Old Trafford hosted seven matches in the Europa League. Ultimately, those matches will have generated more cash than the £31m the club earned in prize money from UEFA.
Even a conservative estimate based on their average matchday yield in 2024-25 suggests that ticketing revenue will have been in excess of £37m.
However, there are significant costs associated with staging matches at Old Trafford too.
United’s accounts for the financial year, for example, list £34m for external matchday costs alone. That’s things like stewarding, cleaning, certain policing costs and other matchday staff, averaging out as almost £1m per match, and that’s before massive utility expenses, which totalled £31m across the club last year.
Therefore, United’s matchday profit will have been more modest than £37m. It’s another reason why the Champions League – which distributes five times as much prize money as the Europa – is crucial for a club like United to really be able to capitalise on European football on a net basis.
Player bonuses are big business
A club’s single biggest annual expense is, almost invariably, its wage bill.
In 2024-25, United paid players and staff £313m. This season, with no European football of any description, that will likely fall, even accounting for the signings the club made in the summer.
“Players have highly-incentivised contracts towards European football,” University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire tells United in Focus, explaining why player bonuses likely ate into the money United made in Europe last season.
“And while those bonuses are primarily geared towards the Champions League at United, you do also have to pay appearance fees and bonuses, which affects how profitable an endeavour it is.
“So in terms of their net profit, the £31m isn’t as flattering as it might initially seem.
“Then, you also get the disruption of the Sunday-Thursday cycle. What you tend to see is teams competing in the Europa League have a lower points tally than they would if they were only competing domestically.
“Look at United this season: they are doing better in relative terms than they did when they were in Europe. And if you do worse in the Premier League as a result of playing in the Europa League, that has a financial knock-on too.”
Travel alone is costing United millions
When United travel abroad, they take dozens, if not hundreds, of people.
They will routinely charter a plane, which costs tens of thousands of pounds each way. Then, there is the cost of putting players and staff up in luxury hotels.
In total, the club spent almost £9m on ‘travel and entertaining costs’ in 2024-25, per the accounts. That was actually down on their £13.7m and £15.8m outlays in the preceding two seasons.
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Travel to European games is only one element of that line in the financial report, with overseas international tours likely being the single biggest driver, but it is an expense all the same which can materially impact the total made from a campaign in the Europa League.
This is one of several areas which have come under the review of club spending overseen by Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Famously, Ineos rejected Bruno Fernandes’ plea to pay for staff’s travel and accommodation ahead of the FA Cup final in 2024 after it fell within the sweeping cuts.
New Glazer-influenced competition format gives United better chance of profits
When Man United were beaten in the Europa League final in 2021, their prize money was about £15m, based on the euro-sterling exchange rate at the time.
So, while the £31m they banked in their run in 2024-25 was relatively modest, it was significantly healthier than in previous iterations, even adjusting for inflation in that time.
That is thanks to several factors. TV deals for the Europa League in some of the world’s most lucrative markets have swelled in value in recent years, for example, as has central sponsorship revenue for UEFA competitions.
However, the single biggest difference in recent times is the new European competition format. The 36-team structure creates hundreds of new matches across the competitions, further increasing the value of TV rights in the short term, which is redistributed as prize money.
What’s more, United are operating under a financial distribution system that favours them. UEFA distributes millions via its ‘value pillar’, for example, which gives greater financial rewards for clubs playing in countries with the biggest TV deals for European competition. It also rewards historic performance in European competitions, which again favours the Red Devils even in spite of their recent travails on the pitch.
One of the main drivers of the new format was the threat of a revived European Super League, which the Glazer family were arguably the most instrumental, alongside Real Madrid’s Florentino Perez, in creating.
Real Madrid last week became the final team to abandon hopes of the breakaway competition, but many football finance experts suggest that the new Champions League and Europa League formats are a Super League by stealth. And the Glazers and their enforcers were instrumental in the lobbying for that behind the scenes.
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